Repair Your Own Furnace, We Supply the Parts

Today we’re doing an annual furnace and air conditioning maintenance. John is already inside getting started and he’s going to go over the advantages of why you should be doing this every year. Well the benefits to an annual service checkup would be to definitely check out the major components and even the small components of any sort of central air heating system. Number one would be the heat exchanger of the furnace and making sure it’s not cracked or any sort of way, shape or form compromised. And as well as cleaning something as small as a flame censor to make sure that the furnace doesn’t cut out when it’s minus forty with the wind chill at New Year’s Eve. Something as simple as that could prevent any sort of issue and something as serious as a cracked heat exchanger could potentially cause you to have to replace the furnace.

We’re gonna take this furnace apart. We’re gonna clean it from top to bottom. All the components that are accessible for us to clean will be removed and taken apart and cleaned up. We want to make sure from top to bottom the furnace is running efficiently and is working safe and soundly but at the same time too making sure that there is no potential for issues to arise. Say just a simple dirty air filter or maybe furniture blocking a register upstairs. Making sure that the rooms are getting adequate airflow so the homeowner is staying comfortable. That’s definitely another very big concern at the same time as well. It’s very easy for a homeowner to cut their lawn and maybe potentially shoot stuff at the air conditioner. Whether it be a rock or grass clippings.

A lot of that stuff can either damage or cause that coil to be quite dirty. So, we want to make sure that it’s kept nice and clean. Second most important thing…you want to make sure the electrical components are safe and sound. You know any sort of electrical system is prone to failure and if it fails in the wrong way, it could be a little bit dangerous in terms of either a fire or maybe worse. but you want to make sure everything is good out there, it is nice and clean.

The number one thing that would go wrong due to a lack of maintenance would be, for example, if you didn’t change your air filter. The furnace could be cutting out on a high limit and could go into a lockout mode. Unfortunately, that’s what could lead to a crack and a very unsafe situation. So, they’re a little bit more fine-tuned. They are a little bit more precise. It comes at a cost of having more parts in the furnace. There’s more potential to break down and there’s also more potential for things to go wrong, especially on the heat exchanger side. You wouldn’t go an extended period amount of time without getting an oil change done on your vehicle. It could cause a potential issue and failure of your car and that’s very expensive.

The same rule applies to any sort of heating or cooling system. They are a mechanical component in your residence. They are prone to failure and if you don’t get them serviced annually, they will most certainly break down and unfortunately cost you some money. So before your system leaves you uncomfortable, make sure to call and book your annual furnace and air conditioning maintenance.

Have you ever thought to yourself, how do air conditioners work? Well, you’re not the only one and in this article we’ll tell you the 11 things you need to know about how an air conditioner works. Whether you’re a new homeowner or you’ve been in your home for years, the more you understand about how an air conditioner works, the better off you’ll be. We’ve broken your Air Conditioning system down into 3 main parts; The Outdoor Unit… also know as the condensing unit, The Indoor Unit…it’s where ever your furnace is and the Living Space…that’s everywhere else in the house. But we’ll continue our conversation outside. Even though looks and styles differ between brands and models, this is more or less how your system will look and basically how an air conditioner works to cool your home. Now this is in no way meant to be a comprehensive technical video to go over all the ins and outs and intricate components of how your air conditioner system works but rather an easy to understand video for the average person.

Now at the Outdoor Unit you have your
(1) FAN,
(2) CONDENSER COILS,
(3) COMPRESSOR, and
(4) REFRIGERANT.

The Indoor Unit has the
(5) BLOWER MOTOR,
(6) EVAPORATOR COILS,
(7) CIRCUIT BOARD and the
(8) FILTER. Now, your filter might be on the side or on the top, just look at your furnace and see where it’s at.

In the living space you’ll find the
(9) THERMOSTAT,
(10) SUPPLY VENTS and
(11) RETURN AIR VENTS.

So how do air conditioners work? Well there’s a lot of moving parts and pieces, even more than we’ve got time to show in this article but they all have to be working together in order to get cool air in your home. It all starts when the temperature in the room rises. The thermostat sends a signal to the circuit board calling for cold air. The circuit board then turns on the blower motor in the house while turning the compressor and fan on outside.

The compressor acts like a pump, sending the refrigerant back and forth from the outside condenser coil to the evaporator coil inside. Back and forth, back and forth, each time helping to remove warm, moist air from in the house. Meanwhile, air is circulating in the house. The hot air in the room is drawn through the return air vents and blown across the evaporator coils.

Pay attention because here’s an important step in how an air conditioner works, cold refrigerant is being pumped through lots of little tubes woven through the evaporator coils…remember, that compressor outside. As hot air from the house is blown across the evaporator coils, the heat and moisture are removed and what you’re left with is cold air. The cold air is blown through the ductwork that runs throughout the house and comes out the supply vents. The air warms up and is drawn back in through the return air vents and the process repeats itself again, until the room is cool enough that the thermostat sends a signal to stop…at least until the room heats up again. And that’s how an air conditioner works.

Now these 11 things, they’re designed to work together and if even one of them stops working you could experience a variety of problems, the end result usually being no cold air. And nobody wants that in the middle of the summer. To avoid unexpected breakdowns there’s some simple maintenance you can do, on your own, to help keep your air conditioner running as smooth as possible all summer long. Learn the most common air conditioner problems that homeowners cause themselves…I know you’re doing some of them right now and you don’t even realize it. If you ever do find yourself with an Air Conditioner that isn’t working, be careful how much you attempt on your own. It’s easy to get in over your head and do more damage than good. There are a lot of moving parts and pieces and it’s always good to have a certified HVAC technician that knows what he’s doing come out and take a look at your system. He’ll have all the proper tools and experience to be able to diagnose and fix the problem right the first time.

If you found this articleo about how your Air Conditioner works helpful and informative, go ahead and give us a thumbs up. If there’s other things you’d like to know about how your electrical, plumbing, heating or air conditioning system works around your house, leave your suggestions so that we know what articles you want us to write. Have a great day and thanks for reading!

All right today I wanted to go over the five most common problems with air conditioners say you go to turn you’re air conditioner or heater on on cool or heat and auto and you lower your temperature down and let’s say nothing happens. The unit doesn’t turn on the blower, doesn’t turn on at all first thing you wanna check is the breakers. it could be a tripped breaker you often have a breaker for the condenser and then a breaker for the fan itself this ones right here for the fan.

So make sure your breakers aren’t tripped. Sometimes if they’re tripped they will trip halfway and when you reset it you need to turn the breaker all the way off and than turn the breaker all the way back on. Next thing to check is the door switch often there is a service door switch on the air conditioner heater unit it’s usually located right here what you want to do is push on this left side to see if that will engage that switch. So if you got it on heat or cool and auto already. A lot of times that will be the problem Sometimes you might need to add a screw. Like this one a screws been added to make sure that it is held in place. Or you can tape the door shut. If you do add a screw you want to make sure that that screw isn’t going to be penetrating into anything. Like any tubing or anything like that such as any refrigerant tubing behind it you want to make sure you pick a place that is good and you don’t want a screw that is too long you don’t want it to poke into anything that it’s not supposed to.

Ok the number three most common problem with air conditioners. So one we had A breaker tripped, two, the service door switch. The third most often cause of an air conditioner not working Is inside here if this hatch comes open sometimes let’s say it wasn’t secured properly it’s got this like a mailbox latch that latches the door into place and if that came open and this hatch falls open a lot of times what happens is your evaporator coil will freeze up into a block of ice so while you are there you got your filter and your filter make sure you have good air flow that a lot of times what will happen is that will turn to a block of ice and you won’t even be able to pull the air filter off of it what you want to do is come over here to your thermostat and just turn the cool side off and just turn just the house fan on so turn the fan on on and and put the switch here on off that way you can defrost the air conditioner and you also kind of wanna watch it to make sure your condensation line doesn’t overflow get built up with too much water from the ice melting so something to keep an eye on there but keeping the fan on will help melt the ice faster and dry everything out you know get back to normal It takes a little while and than you’ll be able to put it to cool and auto again and you’ll close this door and again if you need to you will add a screw or you can add some tape to make sure that its held in place and doesn’t come open on you again.

Number four most common problem with HVAC heaters and air conditioners is a fan motor that won’t start. Often you can just replace the fan start capacitor. I have a video showing you how to do that, “First Thing To Try” before you just run out and replace the motor is to try replacing the fan start capacitor and it’s not truly a start cap it is actually a run cap but replacing that capacitor that capacitor helps get the fan started going and gives it that initial kick to start without that it can’t start it will just sit there and hum and sometimes you can even push start it with a pen or something you know “very carefully”

And the fifth most common cause of losing your heating or air conditioning is a faulty thermostat so you can head on over to my about how to troubleshoot a faulty thermostat. Anyway those are the five most common problems with heating and air conditioning that you will come across that will give you a new call or heat call, and I have videos on all of those so you can check them out.

Using home energy everyday is easy. Since most homeowners like you, want to know how to get those electric bill in an acceptable and manageable digits, there are several systems designed to particularly answer this.

Here are those:

Insulating– The best way to keep your body warm is by wearing not only just thick clothing, but also clothes that will trap the body heat inside. The same principle goes with keeping your house warn during winter. Keeping tight and good batt insulation around wall enclosures is the best thing to do this. But it is not always the easiest. Any gaps at any point around the wall enclosure will definitely degrade the quality of the insulation installed. Gaps mentioned here are electrical boxes, pipes, and wires; places where batt insulation can be tricky to install even for professionals. As an alternative, you may want to use materials such as cellulose insulation for maximum area coverage. The cellulose insulation eliminates gap and voids, making your walls 100% insulated.

But this is not all.

After insulating your home, you might think you have done enough. It is true that insulating your home well will keep cold air from entering your home and degrading the performance of your heating system. Your house is not 100% assured that it would e 100% insulated. The next thing is one important thing you should understand …

Airsealing– Leaks around the house are accounted for as much as 40% of your heating and cooling consumption. This means that no matter how good your insulation is, if your house have leaks, you still can not assure total savings.

Airsealing your home is the next important thing you should do and remember in order to maximize the use of your heating system. Leaks from the front doors must be sealed by weather stripping. Doors leading to garage and attic, and doors to individual rooms should also be sealed. Sealants must be applied on windows, sills and joints. Walls with leaks can degrade the quality of air as well as the performance of your heating system. Leaks from floors will make your heating system work harder as well. All of these should be sealed in order to make your home leak-free that would equate to savings.

Extra savings– Now that you have ensured that your home is well insulated and air-sealed, it is time for you to solve minor problems that add big cost on your home energy.

Cleaning your air filter will give you 2 good effects:

1. Clean air filter reduces the heating system’s demand to work extra.
2. Clean air filter will provide clean recycled air around the house.

Making sure that the ducts are leak free will give you as much as 30% on energy savings from your heating system.

Turn on your appliances only if you will use them. Never leave them on while you were away. Lights should be turned off if not used. Lower down your thermostat if you are away or sleeping.

Set your washing machine to cold. Washing machine consumes as much as 90% more power on heating the water than using tap water.

When cooking will give you better savings than using large burner, using small electric burner. It will also keep your heating system less stressful in maintaining the temperature of the house.

Lower down the thermostat of your refrigerator.

Using your fireplace to warm the house up is much cheaper than using the heating system.

Maintaining– Keeping your home well maintained will give you a lot of savings. Invest on energy saving devices that will keep your home warn at the same time, enables your heating system to work as efficient as possible. Regular check on the leaks of the duct and periodical cleaning of the air filter will certainly make your heating system work efficiently.

With all these, you may now have electric bill that is both acceptable and manageable.

Try all these and see the difference they can do to your monthly electric bill.
<
It is true that insulating your home well will keep cold air from entering your home and degrading the performance of your heating system. Airsealing your home is the next important thing you should remember and do in order to maximize the use of your heating system. Walls with leaks can degrade the quality of air as well as the performance of your heating system. Invest on energy saving devices that will keep your home warn at the same time, enables your heating system to work as efficient as possible. Regular check on the leaks of the duct and periodical cleaning of the air filter will certainly make your heating system work efficiently.

Whether you like it or not and whether you come prepared or not, winter is coming. Better not sit on your couch and wait for it to come like a dooms day, move and be prepared!

Because we need to warm our home. Our home should have the right temperature to give us comfort. And the modern way to do it is by turning on our heating system.

The fireplace– Getting our fireplace ready will certainly yield to better savings; and fall is the best time to clean and repair our fireplace. Make sure that the dumper is tightly sealed when not using them. A small space would let the cold air rush in and send the warm air out. If you were using electric heating system, an opening on the fireplace would mean bigger work to maintain the place warm. Let professional contractor to do the proper maintenance. They are certainly more capable in securing your fireplace.

When you decide to use the fireplace, you can turn down your heater. This will save you as much as 8% on heating cost.

To avoid this, make sure that your filter is clean. A clean filter will let you breath clean air around your house. A clean filter saves you 5% on heating cost.

The duct– Small leaks on duct will certainly result to lost heat so make sure that this is regularly checked. Never use cloth-backed tapes. The note that leaking ducts work 30% more on your heating system so make sure they are sealed and secured.

All you have to do is use open your drapes during the day to warn your room without using electricity. Reduction of the use of heating system during the day will let you cut as much as 10% on your electric consumption

The openings– Openings on your doors, windows, joints and sills will let the cold air outside to go in and the warm air from the inside to go out. Make sure that these openings are sealed with either sealant or weatherstripping. It will help reduce the work of the heating system immensely.

The thermostat– A centralized heating or a programmable thermostat system will let you save on the heating cost. The centralized heating system on the other hand will give you the ultimate control on the temperature of every room. One interesting thing to note is that a centigrade lower on your heating system will let your save uas much as 5% on your heating cost.

The water heater– Households can set the heating system between 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This range is ideal on both regular homes and mobile homes.

If you were using electric heating system, an opening on the fireplace would mean bigger work to maintain the place warm. The note that leaking ducts work 30% more on your heating system so make sure they are sealed and secured.

Reduction of the use of heating system during the day will let you cut as much as 10% on your electric consumption

The thermostat– A centralized heating or a programmable thermostat system will let you save on the heating cost. IN Denver, check out: http://furnacerepairdenver.com . One interesting thing to note is that a centigrade lower on your heating system will let your save uas much as 5% on your heating cost.

What happens when you turn the thermostat on for your furnace and nothing happens?

You look at the furnace, it just doesn’t do anything, there’s no fire down there, no flame or anything like that. Before you call for furnace repair, check: http://www.kyaloassociates.com/ Well the first thing to check is the fan limit switch. I want you to take a close look at this part here. Notice sometimes times these things have a galvanized cover over them, this one doesn’t. Right now, to find out if there is power to the furnace, first I’m going to just go ahead and push it in.

OK, You can hear the fan come on, it’s not very loud, but it’s running so you know you have power.

So know there is power to the furnace but there’s no pilot light.

Let’s see if we can figure out how to light this pilot. What we’re going to look at first is the gas valve.

Gas valves are all different, there’s a whole bunch of different ones, but I notice on this one, the on position is right next to this little button sticking up here.So what I’m going to have to do is I’m going to have to get this into the pilot position. I’m just going to wiggle it around a little bit and see if i can get it to go over there and sometimes they’re a little bit bulky when they haven’t been used for a long time.

Once you have the pilot position selected, when you light the pilot you’re going to hold the button.

Next step is to see if we can find a pilot. If you look at that silver tube right here, you follow that silver to see it comes from the gas valve you can see where it goes fromn the gas valve right there but then it goes down into the furnace. Now this is where it gets a little hard to see what’s going on.We can see this tube going down inside right here. Focusing in, if you look here that little tube is pointing up,you can see there’s this white discoloration there,that’s above the pilot light, so it’s pretty good idea of the pilot light.

So we’re going to try to light that pilot. This is its kind of the hardest part of doing this is tofind out where that pilot is. I’m holding the button, on the gas valve down, you can use a propane torch to light it, although sometimes it overpowers and puts the pilot back out again. Or you can use a lighter or a long match.

I’m going to go over this again and show you how the button works. If you let go of the button, right after you’ve lit the pilot, the flame will go out. The flame has to heat up[ the thermocouiple tip, to stay on. You have to keep pressing the button, they say for a minute after you light the pilot, usually you can hold it for about 20 seconds. If it won’t, hold it for a minute you can try it longer and it may shut down.

But it also may not, if the pilot stays on when you let loose of the button, everything’s okay.

Now you can see I’m pushing down on this button and I’m going to get close up to the pilot again and kill the light so you can see now when I let off the button, the flame goes out. OK you can try, realizing if it continues to go out every time you let loose of the button and your flames a good blue flame like the one you saw in there then you’ve got another problem.We’ll have to look at the other possibilities of what has happened. Anyway that’s how to relight the pilot. and I’ll check out replacing the thermocouple tip.